192 
VENTILATION ON BOARD SHIP. 
By G. Fleming, V.S., Military Train. 
The late war furnished us with many examples of disasters 
arising from the imperfect manner in which the lower decks 
of ships, used in the transport of horses to and from the 
Crimea, were supplied with air. These mishaps occurred 
not only in stormy weather, when all the necessary openings 
connected with ventilation were obliged to be closed, but 
also in summer, when, from the intense heat and consequent 
rarefaction of the atmosphere, scarcely a breath of air could 
be inspired in the holds of these ships, where the windsails 
hung immoveably collapsed over perhaps 100 or 150 horses, 
without experiencing a painful sense of suffocation. A great 
amount of care and anxiety fell to the lot of the veterinary 
surgeon under these circumstances, and it was only by un- 
ceasing attention and the adoption of every measure that 
suggested itself, and could be enforced, that he was enabled 
to keep his charge in a state approximating to health. 
In a ship with every available corner occupied by horses, 
the warmth of the weather causing the gases produced by 
respiration and by the decomposition of the urine and faeces 
to accumulate in spite of all disinfecting agents, and with no 
perceptible draught sufficient to cause any movement in the 
stagnated air, it is not to be wondered that asphyxia, conges- 
tion, — often acute — of the lungs and brain, and a host of other 
diseases incident to animals being kept in such situations, 
occurred. This was most frequently the case when ships 
came to be anchored in any harbour, though it also happened 
when at sea, but not to such an alarming extent. In the 
transport “ Argo/ 5 this was particularly observed. Detained 
in Balaclava Harbour from the morning of the 11th to the 
evening of the 12th July, 1856, the upper and lower decks 
crowded with horses and men, the last of the Crimean army, 
• — the weather fearfully hot and dry, a hulk lying clo?e on 
one side and a ship on the other, which effectually prevented 
the chance of a stray breeze being admitted and put a stop 
to all cleaning, out— -the atmosphere in the lower regions of 
the ship became closely allied, as I should imagine, to that 
of the black-hole of Calcutta. The consequence of this state 
of affairs was apparent long before the ship put to sea. 
Nearly every one of the horses were labouring under conges- 
tion of the lungs and upper air-passages, and two manifested 
acute congestion of the brain. Accelerated and laborious 
